Last year I tried to take photos of the fireworks in Chapel Hill, and was met with kind of “meh” results. This year I met up with my SO and her mom, and we went to the stadium again for more small-scale fireworks, and I tried to get some photos that were better than last year’s.

I probably should have brought my new tripod with me, but I was worried about it causing a problem at security. (It wouldn’t have. I was over-cautious.) Next year I’ll have to use a tripod, or a monopod.

The photos were okay, but nothing really earth-shattering. Some were artistic, in the way blurry photos can be sometimes.

The fireworks were fun, if a bit loud. They were exploding right on top of us, because they were launched right inside the football stadium.

The method I used was to put the camera on BULB, set it to F/13 or so, 100 ISO, then just open it up when the fireworks go up, and let it go after a second or two. A cable release works best here to avoid camera shake. The Nex has a wireless cable release, but it’s kind of annoying to use. So I wound up using my 60D.

I’m not sure how I feel about that now in retrospect.

I think the best combo would be the Nex with the Leica 21, set to F13 or F16, a tripod, and cross my fingers a bit.